Jasmine Edwards

Associate Professor

Affiliated Departments

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Jasmine Edwards, MA, LCAT, MT-BC (she/her) is a vocalist and music therapist, holding a BM and MA in music therapy from Florida State University and New York University, respectively. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate and fellow within Steinhardt Music Education with a focus in music therapy at New York University.

Her clinical experiences include private practice, outpatient, school-based, community, and medical-pediatric settings. Much of Edwards's clinical work has focused on supporting the bond between children and their caregivers through meaningful music interactions, specifically in the neonatal intensive care unit and early childhood settings. She is trained in NICU-MT, First Sounds: Rhythm, Breath, Lullaby, and Austin Vocal Psychotherapy.

Edwards has a vested interest in elevating discussions about cultural humility in music therapy education and clinical practice, as reflected in both her teaching and academic writing. Her current research focus centers on the experiences of BIPOC music therapy educators and professionals across various contexts.

Edwards has supported a number of programs and organizations as a consultant, offering music therapy-based cultural humility workshops, presentations, supervision, and facilitated dialogues, including the Boston Children’s Hospital Music Therapy Program, Berklee Community Health Musicians Certificate Program, Chamber Music America, and the NYC Health and Hospitals Simulation Center.

Career Highlights

Works in peer-reviewed journals:

Edwards, J. (2024). A commentary on “‘Music therapy is the very definition of white privilege’: Music therapists’ perspectives on race and class in UK music therapy” (Mains et al.). Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music. https://doi.org/10.56883/aijmt.2024.408
Edwards, J. (2021). Living in “Turbulence”. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v21i1.3165

Chapters in edited collections:

Edwards, J., & McFerran, K. (2025). Ecological approaches to music therapy. In M. Viega, A. Dos Santos, and B. Wheeler (Eds.), Music therapy handbook (2nd ed.). Guildford Press.
Edwards, J. (2023). How it feels to be free: Reflections on the relationship between music and spirituality at the end of life. In Potvin, N., & Myers-Coffman, K. (Eds.). Portraits of everyday practice: Case studies for music therapy clinicians. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003123798
Edwards, J. (2022). Cultural humility in music therapy practice. Beer, L. & Birnbaum, J. (Eds.), Trauma-informed music therapy: Theory and practice. Taylor & Francis Group.

Other works:

Edwards, J. and Bakouros, S., "Music Therapy for Infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome" (2018). Crossroads of Music and Medicine. 3.
https://remix.berklee.edu/mh-exchange-music-medicine/3

Awards

NYU Steinhardt Doctoral Fellowship 2022–2027
Benedikte Scheiby Innovative Spirit Award 2026, Mid-Atlantic Region Music Therapy Association
Mid-Atlantic Region Music Therapy Association Research Grant, 2025
Mary Brabeck Faculty Award, NYU Steinhardt Graduate Student Organization, 2024
American Music Therapy Association Mid-Atlantic Region, recipient of the 2019 Service Award as co-chair of the Cultural Humility, Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion (CHADI) committee

In Their Own Words

"Out of deep care for the topics I teach, the students I share space with, and the profession of music therapy, I am highly motivated to develop inclusive and liberatory teaching practices. I am invigorated by finding techniques to communicate concepts in ways that are clear, accessible, and engaging to students. I ascertain these possible strategies by explicitly asking about, and taking seriously, student needs, interests, and preferences."

"Within this customization of offerings, it has felt important to empower students through both the topics I present and the way that I teach. One of my guiding quotes as an educator comes from Toni Morrison: "I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.'” I hope through their own experience of empowerment they might commit to strengthening their own abilities to facilitate similar experiences for the people they will ultimately serve as clinicians."

"My clinical experiences inform much of the content I offer to students. Early childhood settings, the neonatal intensive care unit, the medical pediatric setting, and community music contexts have profoundly influenced how I understand the possibilities of music therapy in practice. I often introduce my own clinical anecdotes in class as one of many potential ways of practicing music therapy; not as the only way, but a way. My clinical examples are never offered as prescriptive or rigid, with intention of persuading students to act or think like me; instead, they are offered an option, and students are invited to pick up what resonates, try it on, discard what doesn’t feel right, and continue exploring ways of being that work best for them and the people that they serve."

"My musician identity, too, influences how I show up as a music therapist and educator. I am a primary vocalist, trained classically, but with experiences in a cappella and circle singing, which invited me to explore a number of genres and learn the power of vocal improvisation. As a graduate student at NYU, I was taken by the tenets of Austin Vocal Psychotherapy that were introduced to me within my coursework, and went on to earn a post-graduate training in the model. AVP clarifies the ways in which the voice might be emblematic of an internal experience, and how certain techniques, implemented with care, can create a safe, musical container for someone to explore their voice, and therefore their sense of self. That advanced training, coupled with my own experiences in both performance and community contexts, supported my ability to use my voice as a primary clinical tool. I learned how valuable it was, across clinical contexts, to offer my voice in ways that were flexible and responsive to patient and client needs. I was able to implement these experiences into my teaching at Howard University, when I was tasked with developing and teaching voice lessons catered specifically to music therapy students. It was fulfilling to witness how music therapy values integrated into voice lessons actually resulted in experiences of empowerment within the students, as they explored their own voices, engaged in self-reflective and self-care practices, and practiced how to authentically utilize the voice with intention in clinical work."